†1. In Old English: A sudden and terrible event; peril. 2.
a. The emotion of pain or uneasiness caused by the sense of impending danger, or by the prospect of some possible evil.4
Now the general term for all degrees of the emotion; in early use applied to its more violent extremes, now denoted by alarm,terror, fright, dread. In 14th c. sometimes pleonastically dread and fear.
c1175 Lamb. Hom. 97 Hi..wið-utan fore godes blisse bodedan.
c1290 S. Eng. Leg. I. 82/15 He ne bi-lefte for no fere.
c1340 Cursor M. (Trin.) 2914 Into þe felde he drouȝe for feer.
1398 J.TREVISA tr. Bartholomew de Glanville De Proprietatibus Rerum (1495) XII. xxxiv. 434 The ostryche maye not see the horse wythout fere.
c1400 Mandeville's Trav. (Roxb.) xxxi. 140 Fals hert myght noȝt bere þe grete drede and fere þat þai had.
1490 CAXTON tr. Eneydos xv. 61 O Jupyter, hast thou..determyned..to gyue vs tremoure and feere. 1562 J.HEYWOODProv. & Epigr. (1867) 9 Feare may force a man to cast beyonde the moone. 1588 A.KING tr. P. Canisius Cathechisme or Schort Instr. 17 He..may..without al feir say [etc.]. 1611 Bible (A.V.) Exod. xv. 16 Feare and dread shall fall vpon them.
1671 MILTONParadise Regain'dIII. 206 Where no hope is left, is left no fear. 1725 I.WATTSLogickI. VI. §12 We are in Danger of it [Passion], it raises our fear. 1776 GIBBONDecline & Fall I. 303 Fear has been the original parent of superstition. 1809–10 S.T.COLERIDGEFriend (1865) 107 A contract..might be entered into through fear. 1875 H.E.MANNINGInternal Mission of Holy Ghost x. 265 Fear without fortitude degenerates into
timidity. b. personified.
c. An instance of the emotion; a particular apprehension of some future evil.
d. A state of alarm or dread. Chiefly in phrase in fear; also, †to put in (a) fear , to fall
into fear .
1297 R. Gloucester's Chron. (1724) 402 Þo þe Saracens yt yseye, hii were somdel in fere. 1535 Bible (Coverdale) Rest of Esther xiv. D, Delyuer me out of my feare.
1581 G.PETTIE tr. S. Guazzo Ciuile Conuersat. (1586) III. 159 b, They..make it a sport to put their children in feare.
1623 J.BINGHAM tr. Xenophon Hist. 13 They, and Menon himselfe, were put in a feare.
1653 H.HOLCROFT tr. Procopius Persian Wars I. 17 in tr. Procopius Hist. Warres Justinian, The Barbarians..fell into feare and disorder.
1691 A.GAVINFrauds Romish Monks 390 She continued..in deadly fears.
1736 BP.J.BUTLERAnalogy of Relig.I. iii. 49 This State of Fear being itself often a very considerable Punishment.
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1771 E.GRIFFITH tr. ‘P. Viaud’ Shipwreck 200, I set out forthwith..in fear and trembling.
3. This emotion viewed with regard to an object; the state of fearing (something). a. Apprehension or dread of something that will or may happen in the future. Const. of, to withinf.; also with clause introduced by that or lest.
a1300 Body & Soul 172 in Map's Poems [MS. Laud 108, f. 200] Ne thorte us have friȝt ne fer that God ne wolde his blisse us sent.
a1538 T.STARKEYDial. Pole & Lupset (1989) 29 He..for fere of the same daungerys runnyth in to a relygyous house.
1569 R.GRAFTONChron. II. 355 They are euer in feare to lose that they haue.
1647 KING CHARLES I Let. in Antiquary I. 97 The feare of your being brought within the power of the army.
1849 T.B.MACAULAYHist. Eng. I. 459 The..king might..without any fear of opposition from England, proceed to annex Brabant.
1884 Manch. Examiner 20 May 5/2 The fears of a general crisis are passing away.
b. esp. in phrase for fear, where in mod. use the sense of the n. is often weakened; thus for fear of = ‘in order to avoid or prevent’; for fear that or lest (also colloq. with ellipsis of the conj.) = ‘lest’
c. Apprehensive feeling towards anything regarded as a source of danger, or towards a person regarded as able to inflict injury or punishment.
4. Solicitude, anxiety for the safety of a person or thing. Also in phrase (for, in) fear of
one's life .
5. In various objective senses.
a. Ground or reason for alarm. Chiefly in phrase (there is) no fear ; now often used as an exclamation. The usual sense of no fear is now ‘not likely’, ‘certainly not’.
†d. An object of fear; something that is, or is to be, feared. In the Bible occas. by a Hebraism, the object of (a person's) religious reverence, the God of (his) worship. 1535 Bible (Coverdale) Prov. x. D, The waye of the Lorde..is a feare for wicked doers.
1561 J.DAUS tr. H. Bullinger Hundred Serm. vpon Apocalips lxiii. 449 Therfore let God be our feare. 1607 T.HEYWOODWoman Kilde with Kindnesse sig. B3v, The rumor of this feare, stretcht to my eares.
1611 Bible (A.V.) Gen. xxxi. 53 Iacob sware by the feare of his father Isaac. 1611 Bible (A.V.) Prov. i. 26, I wil mocke when your feare commeth. 1667 MILTONParadise LostIX. 285 His [sc. Satan's] fraud is then thy fear
60 Appendix 2: Meanings of terror n. (OED)
1. The state of being terrified or extremely frightened; intense fear or dread; an instance or feeling of this. Also in in terror (of something or someone).
c1480 (▸a1400) St. George 701 in W. M. Metcalfe Legends Saints Sc. Dial. (1896) II. 196 He..but rednes ore terroure of goddis son wes confessoure.
?a1513 W.DUNBAR Ballat Passioun in Poems (1998) 38 For grit terrour of Chrystis deid The erde did trymmill quhair I lay.
1560 Bible (Geneva) Psalms lv. 4 The terrors [Coverdale fear] of death are fallen vpon me.
1615 G.SANDYSRelation of Journey 20 By little and little [they] descended as their terrors forsooke them.
a1616 SHAKESPEAREKing Lear (1623) IV. ii. 12 It is the Cowish terror of his spirit That dares not vndertake.
1657 G.THORNLEY tr. Longus Daphnis & Chloe 46 Pan sends a Terrour upon the Methymnæans. 1711 J.ADDISONSpectator No. 7. ¶3 This Remark struck a pannick Terror into several that were present.
1752 H. AP D.PRICEGenuine Acct. Life & Trans. xv. 247 Living in Terror of any Attempt upon her Chastity.
1794 W.GODWINCaleb Williams III. v. 87 The terrors with which I was seized..were extreme. 1837 W.WHEWELLHist. Inductive Sci. I. 297 The astrologer examined the aspect of the stars, and while he did this,..showed hesitation, alarm, increasing terror.
1876 TROLLOPEPrime Minister IV. x. 162 You would not wish to live all your life in terror of seeing Arthur Fletcher.
1900 S.J.WEYMANStory of Francis Cludde iv. 45 The terrors of capture got hold of my mind. 1936 E.GOUDGECity of Bells xiii. 338 A solitary who has cut himself off from human contact comes to have a terror of his fellow humans.
1960 C.DAY LEWISBuried Day ii. 33 A delicious terror seized me.
2009 New Yorker 12 Oct. 124/2 His duties..are as much a part of who he is as his terror of intimacy..and his constant low-level depression.
2.
a. The state or quality of being terrible or causing intense fear or dread; a thing or person that causes terror; something terrifying. Also: the excitation of pleasurable feelings of fear by the depiction of violence, the supernatural, etc., as a literary genre.
a1500 (▸?c1425) Speculum Sacerdotale 80 (MED), For a gastenynge terrour and cautele, let be enioyned to hure penaunce of vii yere in this maner.
1528 Rede me & be nott Wrothe sig. b vii, Threatnynge with fearfull terroure.
1560 J.DAUS tr. J. Sleidane Commentaries f. ccix, He vseth hys name sometime, only for a clooke and a terrour.
1601 T.CAMPION in P. Rosseter Bk. of AyresI. xviii. sig. F, The horrours of the deepe, And terrours of the Skies.
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1667 MILTONParadise LostII. 704 So spake the grieslie terrour.
1712 J.ADDISONSpectator No. 333. ¶22 The Messiah appears cloathed with so much Terrour and Majesty.
1788 GIBBONDecline & Fall (1846) V. l. 16 The ferocious Bedoweens, the terror of the desert. 1815 SCOTTLord of IslesVI. xvi. 244 To the seeming page he drew, clearing war's terrors from his eye. 1864 J.H.BURTONScot Abroad I. ii. 61 He became..the terror of all the well-disposed within the district.
1917 D.SCARBOROUGHSupernat. in Mod. Eng. Fiction i. 6 Gothic is here used to designate the eighteenth-century novel of terror dealing with mediaeval materials.
1921 E.BIRKHEAD (title) The tale of terror: a study of the Gothic romance.
1943 Triumphs of Engin. 56/2 Fortunately that constant terror of the tunneller—the underground spring—was nowhere encountered.
1977 M.ASHLEYWho's Who in Horror & Fantasy Fiction 103 His masterpiece of terror was The
Castle of Ehrenstein (1854), a superb portrayal of a ghost-ridden castle.
1999 S.RUSHDIEGround beneath her Feet ii. 52 He would be a terror, as the great lizards had been, the terror of the earth, until the long night fell.
3.
a. hist. With the. Usu. with upper-case initial. The period of the French Revolution from about March 1793 to July 1794, marked by extreme repression and bloodshed; a similar period of violent repression occurring in other countries, esp. the former Soviet Union during the first half of the 20th cent. See also Red Terror n. at RED adj. and n. Special uses 2d(a), White Terror n. at WHITE adj. Special uses 1e.
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